St. Landry democrat., 1887-04-02

| fairness You are almost killed by the
domestic calamity. A few formal, per
| functory words of consolation were ut
tered on the stairs, before you went to the
| grave, but you wanted some one to come
and talk over the whole matter, and reclte
! the alterations, and decipher the lessons
OF the dark bereavement No one came.
| Many time you could not sleep until two
or three o'clock in the morning, and then
| your sleep was troubled dream, IN which
was re-enacted all the scene of sickness,
and parting and dissolution. Oh what
| days and nights they were.
No man seemed to care for your soul.
| There was another occasion when your
heart was very susceptible. There was a
great awakening. There were hundreds
OF people who pressed into the kingdom
of God; some of them acquaintance,
some business associates, yes, perhaps
| some members of your own family were
baptized by sprinkling or immersion.
Christian people thought of you and they
called at your store, but you were out on
| business. They stopped at your house
you had gone around to spend the even
! ing. They sent kindly message TO you;
somehow. by accident you did not get it.
The lifeboat of tho Gospel swept through
y "SNAAASSA
but you Every thing seemed to escape
you.
One touch Of personal sympathy would
have pushed you into the kingdom of God.
When on communion day your friends
went in and your sons and daughters
went into the church, you buried your
face in your handkerchief and sobbed:
"Why am l left out! Everybody seems
to get saved but me. No man cares for
my soul"
Hcarken to a revelation I have to make.
1t is a startling statement 1t will so sur
prise you that must prove it as l go on.
Instead Of this total Indifference to all
about you in regard to your soul have
to tell you that heaven, earth and
he'll are after your immortal
spirit--earth to cheat it, hell to
destroy it, Heaven to redeem it. Although
you may be stranger to the Christians
in this house, their faces would glow and
their hearts would bound if they saw you
make one step Heaveuward. So intricate
and far-reachlag is this web of sympathy,
that could by one word rouse a great
many prayers in your behalf. No one
care for your soul! Why, one signal of
distress on your part would thrill this
audience with holy excitement. If boat
in any harbor should get in distress, from
the men-of-war, and from the sloop, and
from the steamers, the flying paddles
would pull to the rescue. And if now you
would lift one signal of dis tress, all these
voy.gers Of eternity would bear down to-
ward you and bring you relief.
Butno You are like ship on fire at
sea. They keep the matches down, and
the captain is frenzied, and he gives Or
j ~
He says:
II shall either land this vessel in Ham
burg or on the bottom Of the ocean, and /
dent care which"
Yonder is ship of the White Star Line
passing. Yonder one on the National
Line. Yonder one of the Cunari Line
Yonder one of the Inman Line. But they
know not there is any calamity happening
on that one vessel. Oh! if the captain
would only put his trumpet to his lip and
cry out:
''Lower your boats! Bear down this
way. We are burning up. Fire! Fire!'
No. No. No signal IS given. II that
vessel pershes, having hailed no one,
whose fault. will it bes Will it be the
fault OF the ship that hid its calamity, or
will it be the fault of the vessel that,
passing on the high seas, would have been
glad to furnish relief if it had been only
askeds In other words, my brother. if
you miss Hea rem it will be your own fault.
No one care for your soul! Why, in all
the ages there have been men whose en-
tire business was soul-saving In this
work Munson went down under the knives
Of the cannibals whom he had come to
save, and Robert McCheyne preached him
self to death by thirty years of age, and
John Bunyan was thrown into a dungeon
in Bcdfordshire, and Jehudi Ashman
endured all the malarias of the African
jungle; and there are hundreds and thou
sands OF Christian men and women now
who are praying, tolling, preaching: liv-
ing, dying to save souls
No one care for your soul! Have you
heard how Christ feels about it! 1 know
it was only five or six miles from Bethle-
hem to Calvary - the birth place and
death-place of Christ-but who can tell
how many miles it was from thu manger
to the throne! How many miles down,
how many miles back agains The place
Of his departure was the focus of all
splendor and pomp. All the thrones fac
ing his throne. His name the chorus in
every song and the inscription on every
banner. His landing place a cat
tie pen, malodorous with unwash-
ed brutes, and dogs growing in
and out of the stable. Born of weary
mother, who had journeyed eighty miles
in severe unhealth that she might find the
right place for the Lords nativitv-born,
not as other princes. under the flash of
chandelier but under a lantern swung by
8 rope to the roof Of the barn.
In that place Christ started to save you.
Your name, your face, your time, your
eternity, in Christ's mind. Sometimes
travelling on mules back to escape old
Herod's massacre, som etimes attempting
nervous sleep on the chilly hillside, some
times earning his breakfast by the car
pentry of plow. In Quarantania
the stones of the field, by their shape and
color, looking like the loaves Of bread,
tantalizing his hunger. Yet all the time
keeping on after you With drenched
coat, treading the surf of Genessaret;